Brent Jackson’s ’69 Camaro

Today’s abundance of aftermarket parts can transform any antique Chevy into a work of art, but it’s up to the man behind the tools to create a masterpiece. Brent Jackson is such a man, with passion in his heart and a wrench in his hand. Unlike many exotic high-performance Chevys that are built by professionals with water-cooled checkbooks, Brent has built this immaculate ’69 Camaro with a little help from his friends.

Brent hunted down the perfect Camaro and powdercoated its framerails. Jason Pecikonis took care of the paint and body. Meanwhile, Brent had Nelson Racing Engines build him a 488ci Rat motor. The Rat’s array of goodies includes an Eagle 4340 crankshaft and H-Beam rods, SRP forged pistons, Edelbrock Victor aluminum cylinder heads and intake manifold, a Comp hydraulic cam and matching valvetrain, and a 750-cfm Holley Dominator carburetor. Backing up this 500-plus horsepower combination is a set of Baer Track front and rear disc brakes and a hydraulic-clutch T56 transmission that transfers power to a 4.10-geared 12-bolt.

With the driveline and suspension complete, Brent handed the interior duties over to Mike Ambrose. The Camaro received a complete black leather cockpit, power windows, and a custom center console. Brent installed Auto Meter gauges for the finishing touch. After many favors and countless hours of hard work, the blue candy pearl Camaro finally hit the road.

Brent’s Camaro can out-handle, out- accelerate, and out-stop 99 percent of the cars on the road, but he’s always up for a challenge—we gave him one at CHP’s annual 0-100-0 shootout (“Slam Dance,” June ’02). His rocket didn’t win the overall contest, but he did manage to nail the fastest mph in the history of the shootout. As if that’s not impressive enough, Brent plans to build a fuel-injected, big-cube, all-aluminum, twin-turbo small-block engine to go even faster.